Menu
This report highlights the levels of career pathway readiness for various groups of ACT WorkKeys examinees in the US and provides career pathway readiness benchmarks for foundational skills by career cluster. Additional link is to a podcast created by the authors of the report sharing ways to use information from this report.
LeFebvre, M., & Steedle, J. (2019). The Condition of Career Pathway Readiness in the United States . Iowa City, IA: ACT.
Retrieved from https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/condition-career-pathway-2019.pdf
This website provides interactive visualizations of pathways data and benchmarks for the sixteen career clusters.
ACT. (2018). Career Pathway Readiness.
Retrieved from https://public.tableau.com/profile/act2044#!/vizhome/CareerReadinessBenchmarks/CareerReadiness
This report presents a multi-year study of how states are implementing their state college- and career-readiness standards. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) uses the findings of their study from 2014-2016 to provide state leaders with actionable feedback on and support for their work, to inform the continuous improvement of state education policies and practice.
Anderson, K., & Mire, M. E. (2016, May). Professional Learning: Trends in State Efforts. Benchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards.
Retrieved from https://www.sreb.org/benchmarking-readiness-standards
Ensuring that students graduate high school prepared for college and careers has become a national priority in the last decade. This Center on Standards and Assessments Implementation report aims to explore the definition(s) of college and career readiness across states and the efforts that states are currently engaging in to ensure that students graduate from high school ready for college and careers.
Center on Standards and Assessments Implementation. (2016). High School Graduation Requirements in a Time of College and Career Readiness.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED570363.pdf
The College and Career Readiness and Success Center highlights evidence-based practices that promote college and career readiness in high schools. This brief focuses on early college high schools which are partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions and businesses that allow students to earn both a high-school diploma and an associate’s degree or postsecondary credit towards a bachelor’s degree. This evidence-based practice provides a learning environment that enhances students’ education experience and improves student outcomes in high school and postsecondary education.
College & Career Readiness & Success Center at American Institutes for Research. (2017). Evidence-Based Practices to Support College and Career Readiness in High School: Early-College High School. Washington, DC.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED586413.pdf
This report looks at the progress of the ACT®-tested 2018 U.S. high school graduating class relative to college and career readiness. The data in this report are based on more than 1.9 million graduates–55% of the students in the 2018 national graduating class–who took the ACT at some time from grade 10 to 12. ACT score data over the years have consistently shown that educational outcomes among U.S. high school graduates–in the form of academic readiness for college and career–are stagnant, and this year’s results suggest they may even be going downhill. Policymakers and educators must take strong, swift actions to reverse this course. The goal should be for all young people to have access to a high-quality, holistic education that will get them on target for college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school. This report provides recommendations to help meet this goal.
ACT, Inc. (2018). The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2018: National. Iowa City, IA.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED591977.pdf
States often use summative assessments as a measure to determine students’ readiness for college and career tracks. However, a summative assessment may not always be the best method of measuring students’ college and career readiness. Due to differences in learning needs, or differences in state definitions of college and career readiness, students may require alternative methods of properly and accurately demonstrating this knowledge and these skills. Three examples of these alternatives are utilizing local assessments, utilizing performance-based assessments (such as a portfolio), or offering dual enrollment programs. This brief discusses each of these three examples.
Center on Standards and Assessments Implementation. (2018). Selected Alternatives for Assessing College and Career Readiness. CSAI Update. San Francisco, CA.
Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED588469.pdf
The transition from high school to adulthood is challenging for many students, but particularly for students who hold membership in marginalized populations. College and career readiness (CCR) supports can help these students find postsecondary success in a variety of areas, including employment, independent living, postsecondary education, leisure/social activities, and self-advocacy. CCR-focused consultation in the schools is a natural vehicle for improving transition planning, intervention implementation, and professional collaborations. This theme issue showcases partnerships and provides resources for practitioners, educators, and decision makers.
Raines, T. C. (2019). College and Career Readiness Consultation for High-Risk Youth: An Introduction. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 29(3), 255–259.
Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10474412.2019.1565540
This interactive web-based tool profiles CCR initiatives in each state. Housed on the CCRS Center’s website, each state’s map includes CCR policies, definitions, metrics, programs, and structures. The tool allows policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders to access and evaluate policies and practices in a single state or compare multiple states across selected categories. Users can access a compiled list of additional resources on related topics by clicking on the Hot Topics link that is available on each state page.
College and Career Readiness and Success Center at American Institutes for Research (2019). CCRS Interactive State Map.
Retrieved from https://ccrscenter.org/ccrs-landscape/state-profile
This infographic succintly details why college and career readiness is important and how Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest is supporting it. Through college and career readiness and dropout prevention research, technical assistance, and
knowledge-sharing events, REL Midwest is helping regional decision makers identify students at risk of dropout and increase students’ college and career readiness and success.
Infographic (2014). College and Career Readiness and Success. Chicago, IL.
Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/infographics/pdf/REL_MW_Career_and_College_Readiness_and_Success.pdf
Additional Research References: